Taking a payment from a bidder – Soapbox Support Center

With the Auctions app, you can take a payment from one bidder at a time on the Checkouts tab. You can charge a card the bidder has saved, key in a new card, record cash or a check, or write off what they owe. A payment covers the bidder's whole balance (their won items, fixed price purchases, paddle raise pledges and sales tax), not one item at a time.

Nothing is charged automatically. Every payment is taken by your team, by the bidder through their own checkout, or in a batch you review first. To charge many bidders at once, see Charging cards on file in a batch.

Taking a payment

Open the Auctions Manager.
Click the title of the auction you want to manage.
Click the Checkouts tab.
Click the bidder's name, or click Open on their row.
Under Take a payment, click a payment method: Saved card, New card, Cash, Check or Write off.
Complete the fields for that method. Amount starts at the full balance. Enter a smaller amount to take a partial payment.
Click the button at the bottom of the section, such as Charge $X or Record check.

A confirmation appears in the section, and the bidder's figures, status and Payments and Adjustments update straight away.

Payment methods

Method	Fields	Button
Saved card	Card, Amount	Charge $X
New card	Amount, the card details, and Save this card for this bidder	Charge $X
Cash	Amount	Record cash payment
Check	Amount, Check # (optional)	Record check
Write off	Amount, Reason (required)	Write off

Saved card

The Card list shows the bidder's saved cards. The card they chose for this auction is marked "Default for auction", their account default is marked "Default", and the card the bidder chose is selected for you. Expired cards are left out.

Saved card is unavailable ("No saved card on file") when the bidder has no usable saved card. That is always the case for a bidder who has no user account, because saved cards belong to an account. See Linking and unlinking user accounts.

New card

Type the card details into the card field. Save this card for this bidder appears only when the bidder has a user account. Tick it to keep the card for future charges. The confirmation tells you whether the card was saved.

New card is unavailable ("Card entry is unavailable") when your site's Stripe connection isn't set up.

Cash and check

Cash and Check appear only when Allow Offline Payments is set to Yes for the auction. Both record a payment you've already received. No money moves through your payment processor.

Write off

Use Write off when you won't collect some or all of a balance. Leave Amount blank to write off the full remaining balance, and enter a Reason (required). A write-off is recorded in Payments and Adjustments with your reason.

Processing fees

When the auction's Cover Transaction Fees is Opt-in or Mandatory and Fee Percent is above 0, Saved card and New card show a toggle: Add N% processing fee. Cash, check and write-offs never carry a fee.

Mandatory: the toggle starts on and reads "Required for this auction. Fee $X." Switch it off to waive the fee for this one charge. It then reads "Required for this auction — waived for this charge."
Opt-in: the toggle starts off and reads "Optional for this auction." Switch it on to add the fee.

The charge button always shows the total, including any fee. On the payment's row in Payments and Adjustments, the amount notes "includes $X processing fee" or "processing fee waived".

See Configuring checkout and settlement settings for Cover Transaction Fees, Fee Percent and Allow Offline Payments.

After a payment

A confirmation appears under Take a payment. For example:

"Charged $22.00 to Visa ••4242."
"Recorded $50.00 cash."
"Recorded check #1234 for $50.00."
"Wrote off $10.00."

A card payment is recorded only once the payment processor reports it succeeded, so the checkout always shows what has actually been collected.

When the balance reaches $0.00, the bidder is emailed a receipt automatically. After a card charge, a message also confirms "Payment charged — receipt sent to …". Once nothing is owed, Take a payment reads "Nothing is owed on this checkout."

When a payment doesn't go through

The message appears under Take a payment, and nothing is recorded.

Message	What to do
"Enter an amount between $0.01 and $X."	Enter an amount no larger than the balance.
"This card needs the bidder to authenticate, so it can't be charged from here. Send the bidder a checkout link."	The bank wants the bidder to confirm the charge themselves. Send them a checkout link.
"This card has expired. Please choose another payment method or add a new card."	Choose another card, use New card, or send a checkout link.
"This saved card can't be charged. Ask the bidder to add the card again."	Use New card, or ask the bidder to add the card again.
"Nothing is owed on this checkout. It may have just been paid."	Close and reopen the bidder's checkout to see the current balance.
"This checkout is already being charged. Refresh to see its balance before charging again."	Another charge is in progress. Reload before trying again.
"This bidder has no account, so the card can't be saved. Charge it without saving."	Untick Save this card for this bidder and charge again.
A decline reason from your payment processor	Try another card, or send the bidder a checkout link.

Important: If you see "The card was charged $X (payment …) but the payment could not be recorded. Do not charge this bidder again until the payment is recorded.", the bidder's card has been charged. Do not charge them again. Contact Soapbox support with the payment reference shown.

If you see "The charge didn't complete (the processor reported …)", nothing was recorded. Check the payment in your payment processor before you charge again.

If the bidder is owed money

If a bidder has paid more than they now owe, for example after a line item was removed, their status reads Refund due. Take a payment then reads "This bidder is owed $X. Refund it from a payment in Payments and Adjustments."

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